Big Brother's Shoes
by kirylin
Summary: This is a oneshot that crept into my head when I wasn't looking. I was thinking about Mokuba dueling, something we never see, and started wondering what it would take to make him duel.


Mokuba Kaiba loved to watch his big brother duel. For as long as he could remember, Seto was always playing games that required strategy. When they were children. Seto would challenge Mokuba to friendly games of chess. As they got older, they continued to play chess, but each brother developed his own gaming interest.

It started when Seto discovered Duel Monsters. He learned the game quickly and built decks so he could teach Mokuba. A couple of games later, Mokuba realized he was only playing because Seto wanted him to. Shortly thereafter, Mokuba found Capsule Monsters, a game he could really sink his teeth into. Following his zealous brtoher's example, he taught the game to Seto. Before long, it became obvious that Seto wasn't really into the game, and the brothers drifted apart as each found more willing opponents.

Mokuba mostly grew out of Capsule Monsters. Seto, however, continued to play Duel Monsters, dragging his brother along to tournament after tournament. Mokuba never minded. He loved watching his brother tear down his opponents, and Seto seemed to enjoy having his younger brother cheer him on. For the most part, Mokuba understood the game mechanics and cards, but his brother was able to weave both into strategies that would intimidate a Chinese war philosopher. Most duelists feared him, and the few who didn't were targets for Seto's wrath. Those were always the interesting battles. Mokuba liked watching his brother being challenged, but shared his brother's anger whenever the elder Kaiba lost.

Seto's favorite vengeance to pursue was felloe duelist Yugi Moto. Admittedly, it was the matches between Seto and Yugi that Mokuba really enjoued watching. Yugi's dueling style complemented Seto's strategies so well that the little boy found himself rarely bored.

Today, he found himself missing the spiky-haired teen. Seto and Mokuba had been walking around Battle City watching bits of various duels. The brothers had been discussing the battles instead of paying attention to their surroundings. It came as no surprise when they were jumped by a Rare Hunter. The purple-robed man immediately backed Seto into a duel, despite the older teen's best attempts to dodge the man while trying to keep himself between the stranger and Mokuba. Before either Kaiba realized it, Seto was deep in a duel with the Rare Hunter.

It was unlike anything Mokuba had ever seen. The Rare Hunter wasn't exactly a great duelist, but he'd obviously been coached to handle Seto's favorite cards and combinations deftly.

Mokuba realized that there was something wrong early in the duel. Not only was the Rare Hunter dismntling many of Seto's attacks before the teen could fully use them, but the attacks were physically knocking over Seto. The preteen was becoming worried about his brother as Seto dropped to his knee.

"Seto!"

The older teen waved Mokuba away as he threw out a face-down card.

The Rare Hunter grinned. "You have no chance, Kaiba."

"We'll see," Seto grunted.

Mokuba's heart was catching in his throat as he watched his normally tall, proud brother vulnerable. Seto was saying he was fine, but there was no way Mokuba could believe that. Seto had all but raised him. Seeing Seto in this state wasn't normal.

The Rare Hunter made his next move, one that managed to side-step Seto's face-down trap card. Seto collapsed under the attack. Mokuba ran to his side and started pulling on Seto's arm. The Rare Hunter laughed darkly, "This duel is over!"

Seto groaned as he tried to get back on his feet. Mokuba stared at Seto's duel disk, seven hundred life points showing. As his brother passed out from the strain of the battle, Mokuba drew up his courage and took the duel disk.

"No, it's not," he said quietly as he strapped the duel disk to his arm.

The Rare Hunter cackled. "Do you think you can defeat me, little boy?"

Trying to steady his breathing, Mokuba gathered the cards that Seto dropped when he fell. He tried to calmly organize the cards while responding, "No. But I think I can defend my brother."

The Rare Hunter seemed truly amused. "Very well, then." He took his place and made ready to face the younger Kaiba.

Mokuba could feel his heart beating in his ears. He'd never dueled against anyone but his brother, and certainly hadn't dueled recently. As he looked at Seto, though, he knew he had to try. With a deep breath, Mokuba looked at the cards in his hand. He recognized most of them, but Seto had some unusual cards that Mokuba had never seen before. He tried to read the cards, but his vision was starting to blur under the stress.

"Are you rethinking your decision to take your brother's place?"

_No, I'm wishing Yugi would show up. He'd be able to win this duel. _Mokuba avoided the question by thumbing through the cards in his hands. The more he thought about his situation, the more a phrase he'd heard Yugi and Joey Wheeler use kept repeating in his mind. He decided to give it a try.

_Heart of the cards, don't fail me now._

The look on the Rare Hunter's face was making the boy even more nervous. He obviously thought he'd won. Mokuba tried to ignore him as he reconsidered his brother's hand. The cards were slowly coming back into focus as the preteen pushed his doubts to the back of his mind. He read through most of the cards twice before laying down two face-down cards next to Seto's previously played trap.

"Is that the best you can do?" The Rare Hunter sneered.

_Yeah_, Mokuba thought glumly.

"This will be like taking candy from a baby."

_I'm not a baby_, Mokuba's fear was changing to anger. _I am part of a powerful family. My brother's one of the top duelists in the world, and we run one of the biggest game companies in the world!_

The Rare Hunter laughed, taking Mokuba's silence as resignation. He quickly moved through his turn, his assumed superiority clear on what was visible on his hooded face.

_I won't let you down Seto!_ The boy's determination was flagging quickly, but every time he looked at his older brother's unconscious form his resolve bolstered slightly.

"Ready to resign, little one?"

Mokuba shook his head, "No way!" _I have to do this._ He drew his next card and blinked in surprise. One of three cards his brother had not been able to draw before he fell looked back at him. _I have a fighting chance! _As many times as he had seen this particular card, he realized he really didn't know anything about it. He did know that it was his best chance to stop the Rare Hunter.

"I play Blue Eyes White Dragon." Mokuba couldn't stop his hand from shaking as he laid the card down.

"Little boy, you don't know how to play that card!"

_I know_, Mokuba thought glumly. _But if I don't, there's no chance I'll be able to get help for Seto._ "Sure I do. I've seen my big brother play it loads of times," he bluffed.

The Rare Hunter laughed. "Seeing a card played and knowing how to play it are two entirely different things, little one."

_I wish he'd stop calling me that!_ "Yeah, well, I can still beat you!" Mokuba could only hope he was right.

"We shall see." The Rare Hunter's next move knocked the little boy down to 200 life points.

Trying to stand as tall as he could, Mokuba Kaiba wished with everything he had, _Please, Blue Eyes, do your thing!_ He sent the great beast to attack the Rare Hunter, and crossed his fingers.

To his surprise, the monster waltzed over and trampled the Rare Hunter, who echoed Mokuba's surprise. In digust, the Rare Hunter advanced menacingly on the preteen. Mokuba was torn for a moment. Seto's prone body was lying not too far behind him. If he gave up any physical ground to the threatening man, they'd be standing right over his brother, and his whole point in taking up the duel was to protect the older teen. He decided to stand his ground. Again, surprised by the boy's apparent inability to be easily intimidated, the Rare Hunter stopped.

"Leave me and my brother alone!"

The Rare Hunter backed up slowly. "All right. Fine." He turned to leave.

Taking a deep breath, mostly in an attempt to calm his shaking than anything else, Mokuba walked over to his brother and knelt down beside him. "Seto?" The older teen didn't respond. Mokuba shook his brother's shoulder, "Seto? Please wake up!"

Slowly, the teenaged CEO opened his eyes. "Mokuba?" he whispered. The preteen nearly pounced him.

"Seto!"

"Where is the Rare Hunter?" Seto attempted to sit up. Mokuba assisted him.

"He's gone, bro. I beat him." The little boy might as well have been describing a day at school. Seto, on the other hand, heard the words and reacted much more differently than he would have to Mokuba's ramblings about school.

"You did what?"

Mokuba looked at his knees guiltily. "I took your deck, and I finished your duel."

It took the teen a minute, but his younger brother's words finally sank in. "You beat the Rare Hunter?" Mokuba nodded. "Are you all right?" The boy nodded again. Seto shook his head. "Well done, Mokuba!"

Fearing that his brother was going to be mad at him for taking his deck, Mokuba nearly started crying when his brother complimented him. Seto hugged him, "Let's head home."

"Will you be all right?"

The older boy nodded. "I am rested enough. Let's go!"

The brothers left together, the older with a completely newfound respect for the younger.


End file.
